4.01.2017

Album Review - Here I Am Send Me

When I think of Darlene Zschech, I think of the word, legacy. With one song, she along with Hillsong Church inspired the whole world to start taking musical worship more of a focus in our church services. I'll never forget the first time I heard the song "Shout to the Lord." Fast-forward a few years and I found myself as a worship leader in a local church, gleaning wisdom from her book Extravagant Worship. As a worship leader, I've always been inspired by Darlene and her faithfulness to leading the local church to worship the Lord. One highlight for me happened in 2015. I was at a worship conference and got the opportunity to have some one on one time and conversation with her backstage. She was humble and generous to talk to me. Needless to say, I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to review her new release called Here I Am Send Me. This is a live album recorded at her church, Hope Unlimited in Australia. For me, the album is a progression and a journey. It began with a call to worship our great God with songs called "You are Great" and "You Will Be Praised" and culminates with the title track and a final commissioning-like song called "Go." The standouts for me were "You Will Be Praised", " Kingdom Come" and "Here I Am Send Me." The album is vintage Darlene and provides the pure praise focus of the original Shout to the Lord album. If you love Darlene, you'll love her most recent gift to the Church.